The marked longitudinal shape of the plot generates a herringbone program, which develops from the access area located to the north, extending to the terrace at the southern end. It is a projection in which rooms, gaps and a patio are elegantly articulated, that allow the morning light to enter the interior, while intelligently proposing passive measures that improve its climatic behaviour. To the west, the house is protected from the sun by locating the openings only in the toilets and kitchen
The geometric abstraction is complemented by a light cantilevered pergola that opens to the vertical element of the "paellero", a key piece in Valencian social life.
Brick house in La Eliana by Sanchis Olivares. Photograph by Álvaro Olivares.
Project description by Sanchis Olivares
In a decades-old established garden city, in the suburbs of Valencia, an old tennis court became a plot on which we were asked to build. It offered us a flat terrain, with surrounding vegetation as a backdrop, a large tree and an old underground warehouse that became a swimming pool.
The lack of collective life in the streets of this urban model leads us to a typology that looks inwards, protecting and enclosing the exterior space in the search for the user's relationship with it.
The significant length of the plot leads to organising the programme in a spine, from the northern access area to the terrace at its southern end. On the east façade, there are openings, gaps and a courtyard that allow the morning light to enter the rooms, while on the western side there is a flat, opaque façade that seeks shelter from the sun under the surrounding vegetation.
In a reference to the surrounding residential architecture, the house is built with bricks made from white clay. The size of each piece allows us to approximate the volumetric forcefulness that defines the exterior image of the project to the human scale. This forcefulness culminates in the vertical element that shapes the "paellero", a key element in Valencian social life. Located on the southern terrace, it is contrasted by a light overhanging pergola built from pine slats that provides a shaded outdoor space. This pergola, together with the thickness of the enclosures, the cross ventilation and the house's response to the different solar orientations, together form a system of passive measures that improve its climatic performance.
